$show=home

"Sketching is one of my passions. I don't feel comfortable when I leave home without a sketchbook and some pens in my bag. I think that my way to put things in my memory is to draw them. And taking pictures isn't the same thing.

I live in a very dynamic surrounding — Israel is a warm country with warm weather and warm people. Of course, we have seashores, which calm us a little bit. I love to sit in a corner of some Tel-Aviv coffee shop and explore relationships: between people, their environment, between myself. All this unique local mix of cultures, languages and styles is always a great source for inspiration. You need to be fast, because, as I said, everything is very dynamic. But that's why I love it so much.

Sometimes, I look around, and I find some usual items like sugar bags or napkins. I use them in my drawings to show the atmosphere. Sometimes I draw directly on placemats."

"The dictionary says that a hobby is “an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation.” Although urban sketching certainly provides both pleasure and relaxation, I don’t think of it as my hobby. I think of it more as a way of life – something that has become such a normal part of my everydayness that it shapes how I view the world.

For most of my life I had both the fear of drawing as well as the desire to draw. In 2011, inspired by Gabi Campanario’s Seattle Sketcher column, I finally decided to overcome the fear. His drawings of Seattle – my birthplace and lifelong home – were of sights that I had seen many times, yet had never truly seen. I wanted to learn to see, and therefore experience, those locations (and any new ones that I travel to) more completely. Part 8 of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto, to “show the world, one drawing at a time,” has a flip side: Sketching enables me to see my own world, one drawing at a time.

In the last four years, it is not an exaggeration to say that Urban Sketchers has changed my life. I have met and sketched with many wonderful people around the globe, either at symposiums or during other travel, because the USk network brought us together. I sketch almost weekly with my local group, sharing sketches, art supplies and friendship. Even when I stay home and enjoy sketches online, I am still a part of that rich network, learning with every sketch about other people’s lives.

In May, my husband Greg and I went to France for the first time, and I sketched the Eiffel Tower. Sketching one of the world’s most famous icons felt like a dream come true – the ultimate in urban sketching. But although I can’t resist sketching world-famous icons whenever I’m fortunate enough to see them, for me, urban sketching is much more than that.

Urban sketching is a tree with its middle chopped away to accommodate Seattle’s ubiquitous power lines. It’s about a couple of women chatting over coffee, or about workers roofing the house next door. It’s about an excavator filling a hole where a cherry tree once stood. Or the Tibetan monastery I drive by frequently that I couldn’t resist because it’s bright orange. Urban sketching is a string band performing at a local farmers’ market – or perhaps in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Celebrating the mundane as well as the famous is what urban sketching is all about. My sketches are not necessarily about “special” moments; they are moments made special because I sketched them."

Tina has been editor of Drawing Attention since 2013 and now serves on the Urban Sketchers editorial board. See more of her sketches on her blog, on Flickr and on Instagram.

"I was born in Mumbai (Bombay) and lived in different parts of India until I moved to San Jose, California, where I now live.

Travel inspires my art, but, traveling or not, I try to view the world around me as a traveller would; so whether I’m capturing a moment of calm on the banks of the Ganges in India, or sketching over coffee at my local coffee shop, I aim to look deeply, and with wonder, at both the everyday and the exotic, the old and the new.

I love color. My sketch kit consists of Extra Fine Sharpies (the fact that they bleed into the paper as soon as they touch it works really well for me—it forces me to work super-quick), a small set of Prismacolor pencils and a little watercolor travel set".• Blog• Flickr

"I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I studied architecture. I moved to Kassel (Germany) in 1999 to accomplish a master degree.
Although I have always drawn and paint, it was not until I started studying in the Uni-Kassel, that I started keeping a travel sketchbook. I had a teacher there who used to do a lot of sketches when he travelled on university excursions. When he retired, I helped to organize an exhibition of his sketches. He brought a huge box full of sketchbooks he had filled since he was an architecture student. I spent a whole day selecting the most interesting drawings. It was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to a new world.
In the last 10 years I have the feeling of being in a long journey. I like to discover the cities where I live, to understand why a place is the way it is and what makes it different and unique from others. Drawing is for me a way to learn to love a place, to become part of it.
I like to draw architecture but I am more attracted to urban scenery, portraying how people live in the city. Since I’m a foreigner, everything that locals find normal and taken-for-granted, for me is exotic. I always carry a small watercolor travel set from Windsor and Newton and my sketchbook in my bag.
I always thought that drawing was a solitary experience until I found Urban Sketchers. It was amazing to find so many people doing the same thing. It is a great place to share!"
• Omar's blog.
• Omar's art on flickr.
• Omar's website.

Drawing Attention August 2017

President’s Message

This issue of Drawing Attention is being published while the 8th International Urban Sketchers Symposium is underway in Chicago, IL USA. For those who aren't here, I hope you'll consider joining us for this learning and community-building event next year. Find out where the 9th Symposium will be held as we livestream the announcement on 29 July at 8:00 p.m. on the Urban Sketchers YouTube channel. Please join us! As Urban Sketchers concludes the international symposium, I want to remind you that there are still opportunities this year to learn from our talented instructors and be a part of the international sketching community. Workshops in celebration of our ten-year anniversary continue to take place all over the world until December. The 10x10 Classes offer an excellent opportunity to expand your skills and perhaps visit a new continent! You never know what local 10x10 instructor may be teaching a workshop at next year’s symposium. Additionally, the Urban Sketchers Workshop program offer instructors and sketchers the chance to spend an extended period of time together for in-depth instruction. And last, but certainly not least, with over 185+ chapters around the world, it’s possible to find new friends to meet and sketch with in each new city you visit. I’ll close by reminding you of two things: 1) We all sketch because we love it—whether we’re alone or with 500 others—we’re all urban sketchers. 2) Urban Sketchers’ mission: Our mission is to raise the artistic, storytelling and educational value of on-location drawing, promoting its practice and connecting people around the world who draw on location where they live and travel. Happy Sketching!Amber Sausen___________________________________________________________________

The 2018 Urban Sketchers Symposium

Drumroll please! USk is pleased to announce that the location of the 2018 USk Symposium will be Porto, Portugal! With a population of 2.4 million, Porto is the second largest city in Portugal. Located on the Douro River in northern Portugal, Porto is known for its warm Mediterranean climate, fortified wine and beautiful architecture. Congratulations Porto!

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Our Sincere Thanks!

Photo by Brian Wright

Urban Sketchers would like to express our sincere thanks to all the volunteers on both the international team and the local team (many missing from this photo) who worked so hard to deliver an outstanding 2017 symposium! More than 50 volunteers stepped up to serve our USk community, organizing, delivering, ordering, setting up, knocking down, taking pix, directing traffic, leading sketchwalks, answering questions, filming--the list goes on. Always cheerful, always smiling and gracious--USk Chicago rocks!___________________________________________________________________

Symposium Participants Share Photos on USk Flickr Group

The Chicago Symposium Flickr Group is up and running. Click HERE to see photos and sketches taken by Symposium participants of beautiful Chicago, the workshops, the people, the food, the throw downs!

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USk Live Streams Glimpses of the Chicago Symposium

By Brenda Murray

Why not? That was the response we got
when we floated the idea of live streaming the Chicago Symposium so
that more people could feel included. Of course, it wasn’t possible
to capture every moment but we did our best to show a glimpse of
registration, a glimpse of a sketchwalk, a glimpse of a workshop, a
glimpse of a demo.

Drone Visits the Symposium

Symposium participants gathered around the General John A. Logan monument in Grant Park, during the final group shot were surprised by a visit by a drone! Everyone waved and laughed (maybe a little nervously) and did “the wave” as the drone hovered overhead. This was a first for a USk symposium. Special thanks to videographer John Stites. Click HERE to see the bird’s-eye-view of 500 happy sketchers.

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Happy Anniversary Urban Sketchers

When asked to contribute a 4-second unique video birthday wish to USk, twenty-two chapters and four hundred and ninety-six individual sketchers lit candles, rode a bike and sang the song all in good fun. Check out this "Happy Anniversary Urban Sketchers" video. Thanks to all contributors and apologies to those who were not able to participate. We'll catch you the next time. :)

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Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteer Treasurer

Hey, are you good with Google Spreadsheets and love Urban Sketchers? Perhaps you are already an accountant by day? A retired accountant? Or just really good with numbers? We need you! Urban Sketchers is seeking a strategic-thinking, detail-oriented Treasurer. The Treasurer is a key member of the organization’s Executive Board and will be involved in strategic planning as well as the day-to-day financial operations. For more information clickHERE.___________________________________________________________________

Finance Committee Members

Are you a budget wiz? Are you a savvy money manager? USk is seeking volunteers to establish a finance committee under the leadership of the Treasurer. We are looking for people who can help refine and streamline our current financial practices and support the fiscal responsibility of USk around the world. The Finance committee will hold monthly video chat meetings and correspond regularly via email. Please contact Joel Winstead: winstead@urbansketchers.org.___________________________________________________________________

Fundraising Team Members

USk is seeking volunteer team members to help fundraise. We are looking for people who can help negotiate Symposium sponsorships, organize grant writing, and set up tracking studies. We need help from everywhere, but would appreciate representation of volunteers in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Please contact Joel: berman@urbansketchers.org___________________________________________________________________

Volunteer Grant Writer

The Fundraising Committee is looking for volunteer Grant Writers to help prepare applications for funding provided by an institution such as a government department, corporation, foundation or trust. Experience with foundations preferred. You are detail-oriented, enjoy doing some online research and have excellent written communication skills. 4-10 hours/month. To apply email a cv and letter of interest to Joel Berman.___________________________________________________________________

Volunteer Writer for Drawing Attention

USk is seeking a volunteer writer to join our team of contributors to our newsletter Drawing Attention. The candidates should have some writing experience and be able to show some writing samples. Typically writers to DA interview our volunteers and teachers and tell stories about their contributions to the organization. Or they may write stories about new chapters, or special events. These volunteer positions report to the Managing Editor. Interested candidates please contact brenda@urbansketchers.org. ___________________________________________________________________

Sketch Tour Portugal

In celebration of our 10th anniversary in 2017 Urban Sketchers, in partnership with the Tourism Office of Portugal (TP), have organized a sponsored sketching trip called Sketch Tour Portugal. From Aug 25-30, 2017 USk and the TP will send Benedetta Dossi from Rome and Portuguese host Mário Linhares from Lisbon to sketch in Oporto, Portugal. The sketchers will sketch a minimum of 6 drawings per day. The TP will use sketches made during the trip to promote Portugal in different events such as at fairs, in postcards, on social media, and at exhibitions. We wish Benedetta and Mário happy travels and happy sketching!

Upcoming Workshops

August 12, 2017 Teens Draw Montreal

with Julie PresceskyTeens Draw Montreal is an exciting workshop designed for kids to explore their world through line and wash.For more information about this workshop please click HERE.___________________________________________________________________

August 13, 2017 Kids Draw Montreal

with Julie Prescesky

Kids Draw Montreal is an exciting workshop designed for kids to explore their world through line and wash.For more information about this workshop please click HERE.____________________________________________________________________

August 19, 2017 Zero to Hero with iPad and Procreate

with Rob Sketcherman in Los AngelesFor more information about this workshop please click HERE. _____________________________________________________________________

*** NEW DATE*** September 19-23 2017 Frame the World Differently!

Conducted by Majid Modir in Volterra, Italy. Guest artist: To be announced.A Watercolor Workshop - with Focus on Compositions

Welcome to a creative workshop in the heart of Tuscany, Volterra! 5 days with drawing and painting in good company, learning watercolor techniques and some ways to achieve good compositions. Meanwhile meeting interesting people and taking the pulse of the Italian lifestyle, eating and drinking Tuscan delicacies, enjoying the harvest season in September and swimming in the Mediterranean sea.For more information about this workshop, click HERE._____________________________________________________________________

September 27-30, 2017 People on the Move

with Isabel Carmona, Rolf Schroeter and Swasky in BerlinWe are going to draw the people, and explore the city by depicting its inhabitants, its people, who are in a way its creators.For more information about this workshop, click HERE.

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October 4-8, 2017

On Assignment - Reportage from Ischia Island

with Gabi Campanario, Simo Capecchi and Caroline Peyron, in Naples, Italy.The popular Naples Urban Sketchers workshop is back! This year attendees will put on special correspondents hats to report and sketch life in Ischia Island. “On Assignment” will cover practical tips to sketch and report from the field, and topics such as story selection, interviewing and sketching people, developing sources, working with editors and sketching with an audience in mind.For more information about this workshop, click HERE. _____________________________________________________________________

Bring A Workshop to Your Chapter

Meet
Shari Blaukopf

Urban
Sketchers organizes workshops taught by our top instructors in
collaboration with USk chapters around the world. If you would like
to bring an official USk workshop to your chapter, start the
conversation with our Education Director, Mario Linhares
at education@urbansketchers.org.

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San Francisco Chapter Exhibit of Protest Sketches

By Lauren McVittie

San Francisco Urban Sketchers has
organized a show of sketches done during protests. The group has
captured several protests this year, including the Women’s March in
Albany, Oakland and San Francisco, the Climate March, and Science
March, among others.

“This is really history in the making
and we want to record it as it happens,” says Cathy McAuliffe when
asked about San Francisco USk chapter’s exhibit of sketches
capturing recent protests in the city.

The exhibit has been displayed in
public libraries and has become a travelling exhibit with plans to
display it at the Anthropology Museum at UC Berkeley in the fall.

Six chapter members’ work have been
on display, and in future exhibits more artists’ work will be
added.

McAuliffe says the chapter started
sketching protests as a new way to engage the community, and says the
community response has been great. “We hope it encourages more
people to both attend the events and to sketch their impressions and
experiences.”__________________________________________________________________

A Day in the Life of an Urban Sketcher

“A Day in the Life of an Urban Sketcher” celebrates the lives of sketchers around the world and how they share work online. This monthly social media event will feature nine sketchers from six continents who will be sharing a day in their life in a USk Instagram and Twitter takeover. The featured sketcher will show their world, one drawing at a time by sharing approximately 6-10 posts on Instagram and Twitter during their day. Watch Drawing Attention and social media for an introduction to each sketcher. Sketches will be archived HERE.This month Urban Sketcher Helen Lovett from Melbourne will share her Day in the Life of an Urban Sketcher on August 5. You can follow the “A Day in the Life of an Urban Sketcher” @urbansketchers on Instagram and Twitter and check out the hashtag #uskdayinthelife. Not on Instagram or Twitter? You can see the sketches on our website by clicking HERE. _____________________________________________________________________STP Takes Lis Watkins and José Louro to Lisbon

By Susan Rogers

An email out of the blue from Mário Linhares, the Education Director of Urban Sketchers, gave Lis Watkins the opportunity to participate in a sketch tour in Lisbon. Sketch Tour Portugal (STP) is a collaboration between Urban Sketchers and Turismo de Portugal (Tourism Portugal). The idea is to pair two sketchers, one from Portugal and one from overseas, take them to some scenic locations and let their inspiration guide them. The resulting sketches will be used to promote Portugal as a wonderful holiday destination for visitors and artists. Once she arrived in Portugal Lis met her fellow sketcher and Portuguese host, José Louro. The two sketchers travelled to the tourist highlights of Lisbon for seven days. According to them it was an intense schedule. José explains, “We had to draw a minimum of six drawings in each day in different locations. Although the technique and type of approach was up to us, we had to keep in mind the needs of our sponsors.”

Sketch of José Louro by Lis Watkins

In addition, the pair were filmed and photographed throughout the week. Lis favoured watercolours while José used felt tip pens, crayons and watercolours. When they arrived at a location, José took some time to just let himself be enchanted by the place. His favourite sketches were the ones that retained his point of view while being spontaneous and simple. The challenge was always to make an original sketch even when in a well known place. José looked for the more hidden views and often focussed on what went on in the place and what people were doing there. Lis focused on trying to capture the colours and atmosphere of the locations. Lis says, “It was an amazing experience.”

This tramcar sketched in Lisbon by José Louro represents one of its most iconic means of transport in the city.

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Share your Chapter’s News with Our Readers

Contact us to share your chapter’s news, special events, joint meetups, and exhibitions with our readers. You don’t need to write the story yourself. We will assign an amazing DA writer like Ann Schwartzwald to cover your story! Contact us at uskdrawingattention@gmail.com.

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Florian Afflerbach -- Der Zeichner

By Meagan Burns

The more time you spend within the Urban Sketchers’ community, the more you’ll come to realize we are a family, within each of the local chapters, and together as a worldwide community. As a family, we come together to celebrate each other, and unfortunately sometimes we must mourn each other.In May, 2016, our community lost one of our original contributors, German architect Florian Afflerbach, to a tragic accident. Florian was a member of the Urban Sketchers community since its early days on Flickr, and a correspondent of the USk Blog since its launch in 2008. Florian was a workshop instructor at the 2011 Lisbon, the 2013 Barcelona, and would have been teaching at the Manchester, 2016 symposium.

Friends and family have come together to launch an IndieGoGo campaign to fund a high-quality book with 2,000-plus of Florian’s best and favorite drawings. It will be called “Florian Afflerbach -- Der Zeichner,” and it will be available in German and English. With your help and support, an extraordinary book about a very special person and sketcher will be created, and friends and companions near and far are asked to contribute reflections, anecdotes, photos and donations to help create this special book.Some of you might recall Florian as “Flaf”, others as the “car guy”, because he had an exceptional talent for drawing vehicles. He once said: “When looking at vehicles you can learn a lot about designs and proportions. They dominate urban images just like architecture itself.”To learn more about Florian and this project, click HERE.To see Flaf sketches on Flickr click HERE.

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Jenny Adam and Alexandra Baptista Sketch the Azores

By Ann Schwartzwald

From June 19th to the 26th Urban Sketchers Jenny Adam (Germany) and Alexandra Baptista (Portugal) participated in the Azores segment of the “Sketch Portugal” project, sponsored by the Portuguese tourism board as “A trip to Portugal with notebooks, pencils, graphite, India ink and watercolours."After returning from this exciting week, Jenny was full of enthusiasm for her experience. “These volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, are definitely unique, and all of the three islands I visited had their own character as well. It's hard to say what impressed me most. The landscape is incredible - there are breathtaking views of mountains, fields, crater lakes and the ever-present ocean around every bend of the road, all set in a scene by low-hanging clouds and dramatic skies - Terrific for a sketcher.”Jenny had enjoyed a brief visit to Portugal before, but on this trip, she really fell in love with the enticing natural and cultural richness of the Azores. “I've had amazing experiences with the hospitality of people here, and have eaten incredibly well, so it's hard to break this whole experience down.”

Alexandra enjoyed the experience of hosting a visiting Urban Sketcher. “I'm in this adventure for about 4 years now. For me it was a dream to host Jenny and share with her my context and to be able to do what I like best: drawing full time.” Alexandra could see her own country through new eyes as a result. “Whenever we draw we look again… I think this project made me look and find other aspects and ‘taste’ the Azores Islands in different dimensions. The scenery, the gastronomy, the comfort, the kindness and human heart of my fellow countrymen.”Jenny tells us “I think our favorite moment of the trip was drawing in Angra do Heroismo in Terceira. It was an intense day, sketching and travelling wise, but the warm welcome from many locals was incredible. We spent the morning in town, first sketching in an old-fashioned general store, getting a private tour by the 3rd generation owner. Then we continued our way to the bakery "O Forno", were they specialize in a local cake, and there too we were invited behind the scenes and could sketch the bakers first hand and were being fed their specialty of Dona Amélia cakes. This was just the morning! An afternoon was spent exploring Terceira's nature sights, and at night were invited by a local Urban Sketcher to have a typical Azorean family dinner. All that in just a couple of hours.” Alexandra went on to summarize, “The trip was very intense and diverse since each island has its own peculiarities. I loved everything but I must give my special remarks to my staying in Terceira island. Although short, it was very striking due to its cultural richness and mainly due to the interaction with the local habitants, which proved to be the true essence of USk.” For more about their adventure: https://www.visitportugal.com/en/node/333351

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Pushing Your Sketching Boundaries: How a knack for pushing people out of their comfort zone became a business.

By Pedro LoureiroThe concept was born out of the joint belief of sketchers Isabel Carmona and Victor Swasky that drawing can and should be taught and learned. Within a few years of existence, this idea has become a brand in its own right, standing fast for the knowledge-sharing values of the Urban Sketcher movement.Isabel, out of Newbury, UK, met Swasky from Barcelona, Spain, in London, in 2012. There, overlooking Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge, they shared thoughts and found common ground in the ideas they had about teaching how to sketch. After the Barcelona Symposium, which Swasky was busy organizing, they held their first workshop, together with Miguel Herranz, in Oxford, in 2014. They called it Pushing Your Sketching Boundaries (PYSB). Isabel explains the title by saying that “we seem to have a knack for pushing people out of their comfort zone, including ourselves, pushing how we see, how we draw, how we communicate.”

After Oxford, in 2015 came the Space Oddity workshop in Coventry, where the pair partnered up with Simone Ridyard, then back to Oxford with Miguel Herranz as guest tutor again, and finally to Segovia, Spain, for the Water Marks workshop together with Mercedes Carmona. In all these instances, the name PYSB was always featured. “The name stuck and it now appears in all the workshops we do” Isabel tells us. But what seemed to be a casual name for a workshop, actually became a powerful staple for the challenge they present to participants. It’s all about breaking your limits in the technique, in the approach and in the vision of your sketches.

Always wanting to keep their challenges fresh and relevant, Isabel says her and Swasky decided to “set the rhythm of the workshops to three per year, with different guest tutors”. Of this determination resulted Pushing How to Look (Newbury, with Inma Serrano), Drawing People on Stage (Brighton, with Rolf Schroeter) and Light and Shade (Malaga, with Luis Ruiz), all in 2016. In the current year, two have already taken place in Bristol and Barcelona, and two more are scheduled, in Berlin (People on the Move) and in Rotterdam. In a sneak peek, Isabel unfolded that their plans for 2018 are to make “something in southern Spain in the winter, then back to Barcelona in the spring, then UK in the early summer.”

While having only happened in Europe, and being run as part of Isabel’s self-owned business in the UK, she says that PYSB workshops can, of course, be made available all over the world, always with the help, expertise and knowledge of a local partner or tutor that can find venues, locations and provide useful contacts. The maximum attendance is 30 participants and the average prices are around £225 or €275. All PYSB workshops have been run under the principles and general guidance of the Urban Sketchers and its manifesto.

Drawing Attention Mandate

Drawing
Attention, the official monthly newsletter of the Urban Sketchers
organization, communicates and promotes official USk workshops,
symposiums, sketchcrawls, news and events; shares news about USk
chapters; and educates readers about the practice of on-location
sketching.